Reach
by EstelRaca
Summary: Decade. SPOILERS through episode 31. There's no such thing as a good man. He learned that lesson well. Sometimes, though, he still makes the mistake of dreaming. Character study.
1. I

**Disclaimer:** _Decade_ isn't mine, I just really love the characters.

**Author's Note:** So, lots of rampant speculation in this one as I play with Kaitou's character arc. I still haven't seen Movie War, and am steadfastly avoiding spoilers for it, so apologies if things are contradicted. I'll quite possibly add another chapter once I finally see that blasted movie. Comments make me feel less like I'm going to be damned for writing instead of studying for vet school, and thus are greatly appreciated.

_Reach_

_I_

It's Tsukasa who finds him, during the bad time, when he still cares about whether he's a good man or not.

Kaitou has a pack on his back, though he doesn't remember what he put in it and has little desire to stop and find out. It's important to keep moving, to go forward, to not stop for anything. If he keeps moving long enough, they might not catch up to him. They might forget about him.

He might forget about them, and stop hearing his brother's cries anytime he closes his eyes.

"Hey, you."

He starts, stumbles, tries to run, but he's exhausted and his legs don't want to work quite right.

Maybe he can make them kill him. Maybe—

"Stop it."

The man is fast and graceful. Kaitou isn't sure how, the battle a blur of motion and pain that his tired mind can't fathom, but he ends up on his back on the ground, the stranger sitting on top of him.

"That's better. Now, I want to talk to you."

Kaitou stares up at the stranger. The man doesn't look quite… right. His clothing is black, head to foot, and most of it seems to be made of some form of leather. His expression is hard to read, but boredom is definitely one of the dominant emotions.

"You're a native of this world, right?"

Nodding slowly, Kaitou shifts his weight, wondering if he should try to fight and run again. The man doesn't seem to be with Fourteen, no, but he's obviously insane. Though a rarity, it does occur, and he can easily imagine someone with this man's skill avoiding the police and re-education centers.

As Kaitou has avoided the police and re-education centers for the last four days, but that's not worth thinking on.

"You're not happy here." The strange man scans their surroundings, looks back down at him, looks around again at the empty road. "Do you know about the politics of this world?"

He laughs. He can't help it. The ridiculousness of the situation, and especially that question, is too much for him to handle.

The stranger tilts his head, expression still hard to read, but it might be confusion. Or anger. Or maybe just a different level of boredom.

"Yes." Kaitou nods again, smiling. "I know a bit about the politics here."

"Then come with me." The stranger stands, still with that bored, easy, should-be-impossible grace. He seems completely unconcerned, unworried, hair ruffling in the wind.

Kaitou hesitates, debating whether to bolt or not.

The stranger sighs, bends down, and grabs his hand firmly. "Come _on_."

He lets the man pull him to his feet, then twists his fingers free and dances away. Or tries to, anyway. He's still too exhausted to quite coordinate things properly. "Come where? I'm not in the habit of following strangers."

"Somewhere more interesting than here, that's for sure." The man grins, though there is as much danger as delight in the expression. "A new world, for you. Maybe you'll like it better."

Yes, the man is definitely insane.

Still, he'll be someone to talk to as they walk, a distraction from everything that's happened.

And a potential sacrifice if—when—Fourteen's men catch up to them. He's not sure he likes the thought, or the darker, steadily-growing-louder part of his mind it comes from, but it's true.

"All right, then. Lead on, to new worlds."

He does the best he can to shake off the fatigue and pay attention to what's happening around them as they walk. He keeps a careful watch on his companion and the road, ready to run if it's a trap.

He's not ready to find that the man isn't lying. A strange, wavering silver field appears in the middle of the road through which he can clearly see… at least somewhere else, if not another world. Somewhere with scientists, and men in strange black outfits that definitely don't seem like uniforms from _his_ world.

"Come on." The stranger stops at the edge of the shimmering, liquid field, waiting for him.

Kaitou hesitates. It could still be a trap, a new invention courtesy of their inhuman overlords.

It could really be a gateway to another world.

He's not entirely sure which possibility is more frightening.

Then the stranger's grabbing his hand again, tugging him forward, and the silver slides over him in a cool rush, drawing him away from his world.

Maybe things would have gone better if Tsukasa let him choose on his own.


	2. II

_II_

They're trying to take over the multiverse.

Tsukasa is upfront about it, almost nonchalant, as though it were a simple, self-evident goal. Perhaps it is for him, a man who walks through worlds as though he already owned them. He brings back objects, people, books, weapons, animals, anything that catches his eye. Kaitou has seen him do it, several times in the brief weeks that he's been here, somewhere between a guest and a prisoner. Most of his prizes Tsukasa forgets about after a few days, leaving them to his advisors, his scientists, sometimes abandoning them to their own devices.

Tsukasa doesn't forget about Kaitou, though.

He's not sure if that's a good thing or not.

"I'm not going to give you back." Tsukasa simply announces it, stalking into the room in a ridiculous black-and-pink leather outfit. "You're a good information source, and they don't need you in that world anymore."

"Thanks, I suppose." Sarcasm drips from the words, though he bites back the other things he wants to say, about not being a pet to be lost and found and bartered about. Somewhere between his world and this place, he decided he wants very much to live, and angering Tsukasa would likely be bad for his long-term survival.

Tsukasa looks at him oddly, bemusement eventually giving way to an amused grin. "You're strange, Daiki."

"Oh, really?" He smiles, though his teeth are clenched together. Maybe it shouldn't bother him so much, Tsukasa's bizarre familiarity, but he's used to being respected. Being important.

Being an important puppet, tricked and used by the people he respected. At least Tsukasa makes no pretense about what he is doing.

"So strange." Tsukasa reaches out, motion swift and sure, to run a hand along Kaitou's face.

Kaitou snarls, jerks back, glares at DaiShocker's great leader.

Who simply laughs at him again, an easy, friendly laugh. "I've never known anyone like you. I think I'll make you one of my advisors."

He says it like a child would, letting someone in on their important game of pretend. An arrogant child, but still a child. It doesn't fit his age, doesn't fit his dress, doesn't fit his position, but that feeling of youth, of incomprehension, is too strong for Kaitou to ignore.

"Come on." Tsukasa takes his hand, jerks him toward the door. "There are some things I want to show you, since you'll be staying here."

He balks at the other man's tugging, tries and fails to pull his hand away.

He shouldn't go with him. He should demand to be set loose, sent back to his own world. There's no way he should stay here, with these megalomaniacs.

But he has nowhere else to go, and he's already been working for the devil for years.

And Tsukasa is so fervently, fiercely, unashamedly _alive_ that Kaitou can't bring himself to want to leave.

So he gives into the pressure, and lets Tsukasa lead him out into his strange new world.


	3. III

_III_

"Why?" Tsukasa stares at him, angry and confused.

It should be funny, having DaiShocker's leader ask why about betrayal. But there's too much real hurt in the man's eyes, too much confusion and disorientation. "Get out of my way, Tsukasa."

"You won't shoot me." Tsukasa's eyes skim contemptuously over DiEnd Driver. "It's not the kind of person you are."

It would have been all right, if he hadn't said that. If Tsukasa could just have stopped being Tsukasa for a few minutes, and not tried to dictate how the world should run.

Or maybe it wouldn't have been. Maybe something else would have made him pull the trigger.

Maybe he would have decided to shoot on his own, because there's no such thing as a friend or a good person.

The shot goes wide, the intensity of the recoil slamming him back a step and nearly spinning him around. But it's a weapon meant to kill Riders, and it doesn't have to connect with an unprotected human to do damage.

Tsukasa doesn't scream. He simply stares at the blood welling from his arm, his side, his leg, pattering in a steady fall onto the concrete of their high-security storage shed. Sizzling on the hot concrete, dancing and evaporating on the scar DiEnd tore up, and the shrapnel from that is likely responsible for most of the damage to Tsukasa.

The one time he should have worn one of his ridiculous leather outfits, and he didn't.

"I'm going. Don't try to follow." Kaitou's voice is steady and firm, and he's grateful for that.

"Daiki…" Tsukasa takes a step toward him, puts weight on his bleeding left leg and collapses to the ground.

"Shit."

He should go. He _needs_ to go, to start jumping worlds if he's going to be far enough away to keep running once the others realize what he's done.

But Tsukasa's bleeding on the floor at his feet, because he _shot_ him, and try as he might he can't hate the strange man. Be frustrated with him, angry with him, want to hurt him and shake sense into him, sure, but not hate him.

Because Tsukasa doesn't understand. He is their pet project, the child that his advisors found and bound tight in gilded chains. Their leader in name but not in truth, and woefully unaware of the rifts in his own organization.

"They'll kill you." He snarls the words as he turns Tsukasa over, keeping Diend in his right hand, as far away from any lunge Tsukasa could make as he can. There are dozens of tiny holes in Tsukasa's shirt, in his black jeans, undoubtedly riddling the flesh beneath, but he can't figure out a way to bandage him up and still keep hold of DiEnd. "Apollo Geist and his crew, they'll ignore you as long as they can, kill you once they can't. Shadow Moon and his faction, they'll kill you in a heartbeat. They'll _all_ kill you if they get the chance."

Tsukasa stares up at him, eyes dilated, blood smearing the left side of his face now. There is no comprehension in his expression.

Is _never_ any comprehension there, and rarely even an attempt at it. They have kept him for too long, a pampered, tamed wolf, never teaching him or even encouraging him to understand other people. A lovingly hand-crafted psychopath, cocky and cruel but without any malice.

"Daiki." Tsukasa frowns, just slightly. "I would have let you use DiEnd. Why?"

Because he has to.

Because they're planning on using DiEnd to kill Tsukasa eventually, and he doesn't want to see that happen.

Because even if Tsukasa is cruel unintentionally, the same isn't true for most of the people in DaiShocker. And though Kaitou isn't a good man—doesn't really believe there can be good men anymore—he's never going to be a monster, either.

Because it's time for him to be on his own, not following one demon or another into various and sundry hells.

"Kaitou. Not Daiki. All right? And this is what I do." He smiles, though it's a grim expression. He always hated his name as a child, the connotations it had, but in a multiverse ruled by murderers, a thief isn't such a bad thing. "I take treasures before you and your people can."

Tsukasa's still bleeding, a steady, frightening flow of crimson, and it's hard to tell whether the pain showing on his face is from physical distress or the mental gymnastics of trying to understand what's happening.

Maybe he should take him along. Drag him away from all this mess, teach him subtlety, help him…

He can't help Tsukasa. He can't teach Tsukasa what he needs most. Imparting morals means _having_ morals, and he's still too uncertain about his own beliefs, too hurt and bitter to give any coherent lessons.

Besides, Tsukasa never listens to him, anyway.

So he lets go of Tsukasa, allows him to fall back into the steadily growing pool of his own blood.

He should go. He should really go.

But he can't. Though it will make his escape harder, he can't just leave him there.

The alarm is loud, a sudden deafening blare as he presses the button on the wall. There's at least one faction that has invested too much in Tsukasa to let him die like this.

Tsukasa has rolled onto his uninjured side, bloody left hand stretched out. "Dai… Kaitou…"

"Sorry." He says it easily, nonchalantly, as he sets up DiEnd for the jump between worlds. Maybe Tsukasa won't notice that he really means it. "Maybe we'll run into each other again somewhere. Have dinner. You still haven't had sea cucumber, have you?"

If Tsukasa answers Kaitou doesn't hear, the shimmering veil between worlds snapping into existence around him.

He sees him, though, in a quick backward glance. Tsukasa reaches for him, tries to catch him with eye and hand and incomprehensible, reckless abandon.

Part of him wants to go back, to stay.

Instead he presses onward, to a new world, to a self-made destiny, because it's been far too long since he had that.


	4. IV

_IV_

Everything's different, yet everything's still the same.

Kill the monster, only to find the prize even further away then before.

And that's not even taking Tsukasa into account.

Tsukasa's different now. More mature, more open and responsive to others, with a strange but fierce loyalty that somehow fits him.

He's also exactly the same, in many ways. Arrogant, ridiculously self-assured, and half his attempts at understanding people still sound far too much like dictating what they must be thinking and feeling and experiencing.

Maybe he should tell Tsukasa what he really is. He almost did, earlier, before everything went from misery to torture.

He'd been so sure at first that the memory loss was only a ruse, a trick to get the other Rider he'd picked up to follow him for some reason. After trailing them for so many worlds, though, it's obvious that Tsukasa really can't remember, and not just because he keeps asking about his past.

Tsukasa lectured to him about teamwork and companionship.

Tsukasa, DaiShocker's great leader, preached to _him_ about _helping_ each other. Grabbed his hand, just like so many times in the past, and ignored what he wanted and didn't hear what he said, and tried to drag him off his carefully crafted middle ground of amorality.

Tried to drag him toward naïve light this time rather than uncaring darkness, but that's not the point. He doesn't want to be dragged either way.

Doesn't want to think about what he's done or what he's going to do now or what it all means.

Especially when it all probably means nothing.

They came so close. They beat Fourteen. They freed everyone from the mind control and the pall of terror that made his people into kind, useless, pathetic sheep.

And Junichi still attacked him, held a sword to his throat. He still responded to violence with violence, held his gun to his brother's head and tried and failed to make himself pull the trigger.

And despite Tsukasa's moralizing about free will, Kaitou's not sure that's what it was.

This is Daiki's world, after all, and people aren't killed by other people in Daiki's world. Daiki didn't kill people, tried to help people, thought he was a good man, and Daiki loved his brother dearly.

Kaitou could have killed him. He's killed on other worlds. But there's still a part of him that's Daiki, despite everything that's happened and everything he's tried to do. A part of him that still dreams of good people and listens, against his better judgment, to the things Tsukasa and his nakama say.

Who wishes, hopes, wants so badly for Junichi to snap out of it, even now. For his brother to not be a double agent, because it doesn't make any _sense_.

The world doesn't make sense, though. It hasn't for years now, and it shouldn't surprise him anymore when it continues to be that way.

Better to just leave everything alone, then. It wasn't a lie, what he told Tsukasa. He's really come to enjoy the life of a world-hopping thief that he's created for himself. It's a mental and physical challenge, a heady thrill he's become very attached to.

If, in the future, he happens to end up in the same worlds as Tsukasa and his crew, it won't be on purpose. But if DiEnd and Decade call to each other, resonate across the multiverse and draw them together more often than should happen by chance, he won't complain.

Maybe he'll still tell Tsukasa who and what he is the next time they meet. Or tell his pet Rider, tell their human handler, see what they decide to do with the information. After all, they've somehow managed to help Tsukasa, to make him listen and actually learn.

Or maybe he won't, because he likes this Tsukasa. He likes seeing him play at being a good man, and not just because of the delicious irony inherent in the faux redemption. It would be a shame to have that pretense ripped away by reality earlier than it has to be.

Onward, then.

Because there's nothing but disappointment left for him here, and a whole lot more universe left to explore.


	5. V

_V_

"You would make a good addition to DaiShocker, Kaitou."

He doesn't shiver, although he wants to, an instinctive human reaction to being stared at as though you were food by something that's definitely a predator. He hates being intimidated, though, especially by monsters like Apollo Geist. "Let's just say I don't play well with others and leave that topic alone, all right?"

"Ah, yes, your vaunted independence. The thief that dances through worlds, snatching whatever treasure he sees along the way. Now, that seems familiar somehow…" The newly-made fangire paces away, to the altar of the church he's desecrated, putting himself above Kaitou before turning around with a pseudo-nostalgic smile. "Oh, that's right. Young Tsukasa did much the same. You can see how well things have gone for him…"

"I'm not Tsukasa." He smiles, as pleasantly as he can, right hand clenched around DiEnd. Starting a fight would likely be suicide, but the gun's presence still makes him feel better.

It also means Apollo Geist thinks he poses very little threat, but even that's okay. Better to be underestimated.

"No, you're not Tsukasa." Geist's smile is cold, threatening. "You're an intelligent young man. Clever, even. You're a survivor who understands how the world—how all the worlds—work."

It's true, but he hates the way Geist says it, as though it gives them something in common. "Get to the point."

"The era of lone wolves is over, Kaitou. It's time to stop this childish rebellion and make your allegiance known." Geist folds his hands behind his back, stares at him evenly, a straight, prim businessman selling the enslavement of everyone in the multiverse.

In his mind Kaitou sees Tsukasa for a moment, clad in his unique pink-and-black leathers, sprawled on a throne and talking disinterestedly about ruling everything. The comparison makes him smile, especially because the one who almost won him over to the idea isn't the one who should have.

"If you stand against us, Kaitou, you will die." There is a grimness to Geist's features, a hint of stained glass in his eyes, that says death will undoubtedly come sooner rather than later.

"Yeah. Probably." He's less nervous now, somehow, the certainty that he will never be a part of this DaiShocker steadying him. Just because he knows what he's chosen doesn't mean Geist has to, though. "Hypothetically, what would you want me to do for you?"

The fangire smiles again, stained glass fading from his eyes. "Deliver a message to Tsukasa. Follow him. Shoot him once he's at the rendezvous point."

"Why not before?" Tapping DiEnd against his shoulder, he sits down on one of the pews, left arm hanging comfortably over the back. "Give him the message, shoot him in the back, problem solved."

"Come now. We've both been in this business for far too long for you to play dumb." There's a patronizing edge to Geist's smile now, and Kaitou tries not to let his annoyance at it show. "I don't trust you. I want to see him die with my own eyes. No bringing back a body that you accidentally destroyed the features of, or anything like that."

"Oh. Well, your time wasted." He pauses, taps DiEnd against the wood of the pew. "Your time wasted anyway. Tsukasa's too smart to come when you beckon."

"Oh, he'll come. They've changed him, made him even weaker than he was before." A snap of Geist's fingers and another fangire appears through a side door, dragging someone in a white dress none too gently behind it. "And don't forget, I've acquired what's probably the perfect bait for the trap."

He wants to counter that Tsukasa still won't come. It would have been true, once. The Tsukasa he'd met first would laugh, or shrug, or maybe go to the duel but only because he was angry at the challenge it implied.

Now, though, Tsukasa's pretending to be a good man. And good men do stupid things like march to their death for their friends.

Natsumi has worked her way to a kneeling position. Her hands are bound tight behind her back, hair a wild mass of disarray. She looks up at him, horror and hope both painfully obvious in her expression. "Daiki?"

It hurts more than he thought it could, seeing her there, hearing his name from her lips. She never asked to use his first name, just like Tsukasa once upon a time, but it's never bothered him as much as it did with Tsukasa. Maybe because there's no arrogance in the way she says it, no claiming of him. Just a friendly, open mind, a kind heart, one that was able to help Yuusuke convince Tsukasa it was worth trying to be a good man.

Even after they learned the truth.

Even after Tsukasa remembered, betrayed them.

"Here, Kaitou." Apollo Geist steps down from the altar, closer to him but not crowding him. A cordially folded invitation is held in his left hand. "Give this to Kadoya-sama, please. It will tell him where to go."

They all watch him, the two fangires and the human, and he realizes far too late that this is a test. They're waiting to see if he'll be foolish enough to try to rescue her.

He can't. He can't beat Apollo Geist and his fangires, not alone. He doesn't want to die, hasn't wanted to die since Tsukasa found him and yanked him into this mess so long ago, and to try to resist these people now would be suicide.

But he wants to. Every time his eyes land on her, he wants to. She's almost innocent, so close to a good person, as close as someone can get. She helped Tsukasa, though maybe it wasn't help since it's going to get him killed.

She welcomed _him_, defended him, assumed the best of him. Natsumelon and Yuusuke, Tsukasa's balance points, his light touchstones, and Kaitou doesn't want to be here anymore.

Doesn't want to have to face it and accept it again, the fact that good people are all evil, liars, or dead.

His hand is tense around DiEnd as he stands, snatches the invitation and stalks into the aisle. He doesn't look at Natsumi.

"We'll see you in a few hours then, Kaitou."

He turns, gives a predator's smile in response to Geist's, and tries very hard not to let his gaze snag on Natsumi again.

There are tears in her eyes, and her shoulders are hunched forward, as though she is reaching for him as best she can despite her bonds.

"Daiki…" Not angry. Just disappointed, and terrified, and calling for him.

He doesn't let his steps falter. There's nothing he can do—nothing he _should_ do. She's Tsukasa's friend, Tsukasa's business, nothing to do with him. He's a survivor, and he's clever, and right now he's doing the only thing he can do.

It still feels like he's running, though.

Running from his past, running from the truth, running from a hand that's finally reaching out to but not grabbing him.

Asking but not demanding.

Offering him a chance to be what he always wanted to be, but he wants to live, too, not die as a martyr to a pointless cause.

DiEnd is shaking in his hand as he sets off down the road, guessing which way Tsukasa will come. He should just leave the invitation and run—jump worlds if he still can, run somewhere else in this world if he can't. Tell Tsukasa to do the same, to save himself, because Tsukasa isn't meant to be a martyr, either.

He should.

He should, but he's not sure if he will, not sure if he _can_ anymore.

And that terrifies him.

That lack of certainty, that spark of hope, that desperate, irrational, deadly desire to reach out and take her hand—take Tsukasa's hand, take Yuusuke's hand—and pull them all with him to somewhere safe and sheltered terrifies him, more than anything else in all the worlds.


End file.
